Orthodontist warns of the effects too much Halloween candy can have on teeth

Monday night all sorts of ghouls and ghosts will be heading out on all Hallows eve to collect candy and parents will be trying to make sure their kids don’t eat too many sweets.

Amer Hussain with Pure Orthodontics said it’s ok for kids to eat sweets, and there’s ways for them to do it safely for their teeth.

“The key is really not letting them eat it over the course of a long period of time, if they are going to have a candy it’s sort of eating it in within that first 10 or 15 minutes and then don’t let them eat it over the period of an hour.”

Hussain said after Halloween they see a lot kids coming in dealing with the effects of eating too much candy.

“When we see kids come in especially after Halloween, a lot of brackets on their braces can get knocked off from eating the candies, especially the sticky hard ones and if they’re not getting in there and cleaning really good we start to see the cavities kind of build-up and the little decay and all that kind of stuff spike on the teeth. So I think that’s the kind of stuff we want to watch out for.”

He said to avoid the chewy hard candy like gummy bears or worms, Starbursts and Skittles.

While some parents will be monitoring their kid’s sweets intake, some just take it away all together.

Raelene Werthmann has two sons and she said the amount of candy they get while trick or treating is overwhelming.

“You try to cut down on sugar all the time so come Halloween time we don’t try and indulge in more.”

But a few days after Halloween the ‘Switch Witch’ comes and takes her sons candy and replaces it with a new toy or book.

Werthmann said the Switch Witch is a good incentive for her kids to get rid of the candy and her kids like the idea of getting a toy for their candy.